T82-T84
I've run these turns together as while quite a lot is happening, the snowfall seriously limited air operations making it all rather repetitive. T82 and 83 were snowfall, T84 brought clear skies.
The other big issue was that the major rivers froze to about level 5 ice. This is actually a real problem as it really increases MP to cross. It takes a complete turn to manage this and often cross-river attacks need to be hasty.
Anyway, have managed to get into Germany.
Have almost finished stripping down the Italian front.
Most went by rail up the Rhone valley, 1 Canadian Corps and some good infantry by sea to the UK and then landed at Antwerp. 3 more infantry divisions are following and I'll move the NZ motorised division by rail in the next few turns.
To place all this in some sort of context, this is the OOB screen for T84. From north to south in NW is 12 US Army Group, 21 British Army Group and 6 US Army Group.
15 British Army Group still has 4 formations it will lose in the coming turns.
On the other side, there are a lot of Germans, and I have a lot of damaged tanks.
VP situation at the start of T84. Bombing VP has badly dropped off but at least I'd mostly suppresed the v-weapons before the poor weather turns.
All the bombing charts are for T84, previous two turns have only shown intermittent raids taking place.
BC went back to where it is always happiest.
8 AAF still has a dedicated v-weapon AD. Main one bombed to the north of Hannover.
15 AAF now concentrating on SW Germany from its Paris base.
Development of the main offensive over the three turns.
T82 saw the destruction of a pocket with a FJ and SS Pzr division. As you can see this wasn't that easy.
T83 saw 3A and its French armour/motorised units reach the Dutch-German border. Due to high MP costs can only slowly reinforce my bridgehead around Maastricht, so 1A rather bogged down.
T84. Tried to cross the Maas but could only manage hasty atttacks. At least this turn I had a lot of airpower available.
The Canadian formations from Italy are just unloading in Antwerp which will give me a lot of powerful infantry.
T84 finally saw 2 British A manage to regain some mobility. Trying to cut off the large German salient that is still only about 20 miles from Paris.
T83 and 9A finally forced the Rhine. Also managed to move enough across that I think I can hold on. Any exploitation will be hard, not least as Strasbourg is the most southerly Rhine rail bridge.
Main offensive force of 5A is now available.
So for T84 a small exploitation of the Rhine crossing and 5 and 9 Armies co-operated in taking Strasbourg.
Actually getting a rail connection means clearing Lorraine – hence the offensive by 2 British.
Couple of wider comments. In NW Europe my supply is really good. I think that diverting a substantial force to clear all the Brittany ports and building two separate rail links from there to the main front has paid off. As has ensuring that both rail lines up the Rhone valley are fully repaired. Also using the transport commands to constantly drop supply close to the front.
I have a one divisional landing planned for the region NE of Amsterdam. I may never use this but it can be handy depending on how the campaign works out. One US airborne division is in the UK, its prepping to drop but I really intend to use it to reinforce any captured airfield via air transport.
Not sure how this is going to work out. The Maas-Rhine are proving harder to cross than my previous experience and anything in S Germany is fully dependent on making the rail links at Strasbourg work. On the other hand, I have a lot of troops available and can rotate more beaten up formations out of the line.
Italy I am assuming is now stalemated. I've left just enough that if I spot a weak spot I can both attack and exploit.